The Grand Bargain Is Neither Grand Nor A Bargain

With all due respect to the president, his plan for "common sense" is a terrible idea. It was a terrible idea in 2009. It was a terrible idea in 2010. And it is a terrible idea now. I hope the progressives in the House shred this thing. I hope Bernie Sanders lights it on fire on the steps of the Capitol. I hope Lyndon Johnson comes back from the fking dead and drinks all the Scotch in the White House and keeps Gene Sperling up all night talking about his inseam and about how his pants are too tight in the crotch.

Monday and in recent days, Obama has made individual phone calls to a number of senators in a search for common ground on $85 billion in budget cuts that went into effect last week, as well as his top priorities like deficit reduction, gun control and an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Gene Sperling, the White House senior economic official, said on the CNN program "State of the Union" on Sunday that Obama was contacting to lawmakers to talk about compromises that could include reforms to both the tax code and entitlement programs, which include Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare healthcare for the elderly and disabled.

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I am no political genius, but if this is the best the White House has to offer for economic leadership, then Barack Obama is the biggest sucker in two shoes. You give us chained-CPI and a rise in the eligibility age for Medicare and we'll close some loopholes that will be open again in six months, which will be about when we've also set about destroying what's left of the social safety net in...the...middle...of...a....recession. Are we to believe that any bargain is a good one as long as the president and Tom Fcking Coburn agree to it? And, of course, the young Feeders Of Vaal are all over this.

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How do I know the Republicans can't be trusted to keep any bargain, grand or otherwise? Because to cite one example, along with an accumulated 30 years of evidence thereof, Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny-starver from Wisconsin, is already talking double for the purpose of reneging on his own kill-Medicare-slowly plan.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) is facing speculation that he may update his Medicare privatization plan to include changes for Americans older than 55 - people his prior budgets exempted from his reforms - in order to fulfill GOP leadership's promise to align revenues and spending within 10 years. TPM put the question to Ryan's office. His spokesman declined to address the speculation, but appeared to leave open the possibility that the cutoff may change from 55, vowing that those "in or near retirement" won't see any changes under the updated plan.

Paul Ryan wants to kill Medicare because he doesn't believe it to be a legitimate function of government. Period. He doesn't want to kill it a little and then go away. He wants it dead. The Republicans want rich people to pay almost nothing in taxes, and they want the government to fail because of it. Period. They don't want rich people to pay just a little less in taxes and only certain parts of the government to fail. This is what they are in for, all of them, including Tom Fking Coburn. Let them eat the sequester.